Ryan Chamberlain indicted on 'destructive device' charges

Updated 7:55 am, Friday, June 13, 2014

(06-12) 18:33 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco political and media consultant Ryan Chamberlain was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges that he possessed a destructive device and a gun with its serial number removed.

The indictment seeks the forfeiture of any bomb-making components a well as a .22-caliber Derringer pistol, "serial number unknown," along with 42 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition.

The indictment replaces a criminal complaint issued this month alleging that Chamberlain, 42, possessed bomb-making materials at his Polk Street apartment and had sought "illegal toxins" on a black market website.

More on Ryan Chamberlain

Chamberlain is to return to court Monday and Tuesday for a detention hearing and arraignment. He is being held at San Francisco County Jail.

Court filings by FBI Special Agent Michael Eldridge allege that Chamberlain sought to buy abrin, a natural poison that is found in rosary pea seeds and is considered to be a potential weapon of terrorism, among other illicit chemicals, and to have the toxins shipped to his Polk Street apartment.

The FBI raided the apartment May 31 and allegedly found the makings of a homemade, remote-controlled bomb that they believed Chamberlain was going to build. Other materials suspected to be toxins were sent to a lab for testing, the agency said.

Chamberlain was not home at the time, prompting a nationwide manhunt that ended with his arrest June 2 near San Francisco's Crissy Field. Earlier that day, Chamberlain posted a letter sent to his Facebook friends that led many to believe he had killed himself.

The FBI affidavit states that the investigation that brought agents to Chamberlain's home began with a larger probe of Black Market Reloaded, an online marketplace resembling eBay or Amazon where people bought and sold guns, bombs, drugs, chemicals and counterfeit goods.

People accessed the site using the Tor network, which conceals communications, and mostly paid with bitcoin, the anonymous digital currency.

In February, Eldridge said, a New York City man told police and the FBI that he had bought cyanide and abrin on Black Market Reloaded so he could commit suicide, before apparently having second thoughts.

It turned out, the FBI said, that the same online seller had sent abrin to Chamberlain. When that man, a Sacramento resident, was arrested last month, he told the FBI that Chamberlain had previously sought to buy liquid ricin from another seller but balked at the high price. Ricin comes from castor beans.

Chamberlain "indicated that he was seeking abrin to 'ease the suffering' of cancer patients" and asked the Sacramento seller whether abrin could be detected in the autopsy of a dead person, Eldridge wrote. He said Chamberlain told the seller the initial purchase would be a trial run before he possibly used the poison "on a larger scale."

According to the FBI, the seller reported sending two vials of abrin that was not fully purified to Chamberlain in December, hidden in flashlights. Chamberlain soon complained the abrin didn't work, the seller told the FBI, and then cut off communication.

A separate seller on Black Market Reloaded, who was also arrested, reported selling pure nicotine extracted from antismoking patches to Chamberlain in June 2013. Pure nicotine can be fatal if ingested.

Jodi Linker, an attorney from the federal public defender's office who is representing Chamberlain, has said that a mental health evaluation conducted by one of her experts conveyed a sense of "urgency for the need for further treatment."

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